Stepping up pushback on health care charges, White House debuts 'Health Insurance Reform Reality Check' website, based on 'Fight the Smears' site from campaign

Good Monday morning. VIDEO DU JOUR — One of the classic franchises of CNN’s late, lamented “Inside Politics” was Jonathan Karl’s “Subway Series,” featuring interviews with lawmakers on the Capitol subway. (For Charlie Hurt: The real subway series is when Yanks play Mets.) Well, Jon ran away to ABC, and “IP” later went to the great cable newser in the sky. But the “Subway Series” is back, starting today on ABC News’ “Top Line,” the great noon Web show by Rick Klein and David Chalian. Jon’s first passenger is Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) Look for his priceless answer to whether he’ll ever break with his party on a key vote. Video live at 7 a.m., and don’t forget “Top Line” at noon.

BREAKING — WHITE HOUSE THIS MORNING DEBUTS “HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM REALITY CHECK” WEBSITE ON HEALTH CARE. http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck The site incorporates lessons learned from http://fightthesmears.com, the Obama campaign’s Learn the Truth About Barack Obama site, which covered everything from the birth certificate to William Ayers to “a recent e-mail smear falsely claims Michelle ordered room service, but she never even stayed at the hotel.”

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WHAT’S NEW: The site has built-in tools allowing users to e-mail every page and video to their friends and families and is linked to social networks with preloaded messages to encourage folks to share the content. The centerpiece videos are a new format for the White House and feature administration officials putting a face on reform by tackling issues in a casual, straightforward way. There's also an FAQ that, when e-mailed, includes a long message full of the facts about reform — in a similar format to some chain e-mails that offer a long list of falsehoods. The site will be promoted heavily on the White House’s rapidly growing social networks and with an e-mail to the WhiteHouse.gov list.

A SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: “We're offering the site and tools to empower individuals across the country to take this content into their own hands and share it among their networks. That's the sort of bottom-up process that got us to the White House, and it's what's going to deliver meaningful change to the health insurance system.”

LINDA DOUGLASS, communications director of the White House Office of Health Reform, on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday: “One of the things we learned during the campaign was that if you give people all the facts, … people really paid attention. They understand what the truth is when they see it.”

WEST WING MIND-MELD: On the campaign, we built the most sophisticated rapid response operation in history and became the first Democratic entity to stand up to and beat the right-wing noise machine. We may have started slowly in health care but have now stepped up our game. We are blessed with tens of thousands of activists who will spread the word if we give them the tools to do so. The key is to respond to viral rumors with an aggressive equally viral response.

MACON PHILLIPS, White House director of new media, offers a tour of his team’s handiwork, in a pre-dawn blog post: “The first set of videos addresses a wide scope of topics and debunks some of those common myths:

— CEA Chair Christina Romer details how health insurance reform will impact small businesses. — Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes tackles a nasty rumor about euthanasia and clearly describes how reform helps families. — Matt Flavin, the White House's director of veterans and wounded warrior policy, clears the air about veterans' benefits. — Kavita Patel, M.D., a doctor serving in the White House's Office of Public Engagement, explains that health care rationing is happening right now and how reform gives control back to patients and doctors. — Robert Kocher, M.D., a doctor serving on the National Economic Council, debunks the myth that health insurance reform will be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. — In a video first released last week, Linda Douglass from the White House Health Reform Office addresses fears about the end of our private insurance system and reiterates that if you like your current plan you can keep it.” MACON’S BLOG POST

— DNC ALSO TURNING OUT PEOPLE FOR TOWN HALLS — POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin, blogsitting for Ben Smith, reveals: “Organizing for America, President Obama's political organization, is urging supporters to visit the district offices of their local member of Congress to urge support for health care reform … In an e-mail message sent Sunday, Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart tries to motivate Obama backers by warning that ‘[i]nsurance companies and partisan attack groups are stirring up fear with false rumors.’ He adds: ‘We can't let extremists hijack this debate, or confuse Congress about where the people stand.’ … Democrats have compiled the address, phone number and office hours for the members and tailored it to each e-mail depending on where their supporter lives. ‘We'll provide everything you need: the address, phone number and open hours for the office, information about how the health care crisis affects your state for you to drop off (with the option of adding your personal story) and a step-by-step guide for your visit,’ writes Stewart, assuring those who've not previously visited their local member of Congress's office that their staff is ‘there to listen.’ … Last week, Organizing for America sent out an e-mail to supporters alerting them to congressional town halls in their districts and even including fliers that could be downloaded and printed out.”

— L.A. Times A1, “Obama’s ground-level supporters put to the test: A network that elected a president is reshaped to push a health bill,” by Peter Wallsten — on the Obama grass-roots organization, now renamed Organizing for America, a project of the DNC: “[S]ome members of the network say that the group is still figuring out how to operate. Some also say their work has been slowed by tensions over tactics, disenchantment among some core supporters and an effective GOP resistance. … Beyond the health care debate, the network's troubles suggest that even a well-tuned campaign operation — with its stable of trained organizers, precinct captains and neighborhood coordinators — is not easily transformed into a policymaking force that Obama might rely on to deliver on other issues, such as global warming and immigration legislation. The network is powered by local volunteers who often have left-leaning goals. But the president, now that he is in office, has in many cases adopted a centrist approach that accommodates Republicans and business groups. That means some activists are being asked to devote evenings and weekends to build support for policies they may feel only lukewarm about. …

“Staffers have been hired so far in 42 states, said the group's deputy director, Jeremy Bird, and he expects to have paid workers in every state in a matter of weeks. ‘We've been methodical, dogged and focused,’ Bird said. ‘It's like in the early days of the campaign, people said we needed to be louder, to have more signs. But we focused on the conversations between people and neighbors, and that's what worked.’ Organizing for America's website displays hundreds of upcoming events, ranging from tiny house parties to solicitations to match the conservative presence at town hall meetings. With new online tools, supporters can tell their own health care stories to be distributed to lawmakers, and network members can monitor their colleagues' calls to Capitol Hill. A Democratic National Convention spokesman, Hari Sevugan, argued that the Obama network ultimately would prove more effective than the GOP approach because ‘grass-roots efforts are won at the doors, with neighbors talking to neighbors, not in front of news cameras with folks screaming at members of a community.’ …

“[S]ome of those Democrats are unhappy at the prospect of being pressured by a group that is funded with party money and housed at the Democratic National Committee. They raised concerns at a pre-recess meeting of freshman lawmakers and Organizing for America officials. So far, the group's pressure on Democrats has been soft. A television ad featuring Americans with healthcare concerns aired in several states represented by centrist Democratic senators, including Arkansas, North Dakota and Florida. … In recent days, the network has started looking for ways to help Democrats, many of them freshmen, who face tight races next year — rewarding those who support Obama's health care agenda or gently pressuring those who might need an extra nudge to back it. Last week, for example, the network organized a ‘thank you’ rally for a Virginia congressman, Tom Perriello, even though he hasn't said which way he would vote on health care.”

SPOTTED: Justice Sotomayor, lunching yesterday at the St. Gregory Hotel, across from the CBS News bureau. (Not a good spot to not be spotted!)

**A message from AFSCME’s Highway 2 Healthcare Tour: AFSCME Rocks and Rolls for Reform during August Recess. For a tour schedule, go to www.Highway2Healthcare.com. **

WEST WING MUST-READ — Maine Sunday Telegram, “ Mitchell again finds himself peace broker amid a sea of hostility: The former Senate majority leader and Waterville native finds hope in the president's decision to immediately enter the fray” — an interview with George Mitchell, President Obama’s Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, gives an extensive interview: Mitchell said he is more optimistic today about chances for peace than he was six months ago. … Obama's quick action on the Middle East was one of several reasons Mitchell thinks peace efforts may pay off this time. ‘It was an early effort, not waiting until late in his term, which proved to be a problem in the past when time ran out on the president,’ said Mitchell. … Another important factor is Obama's direct appeal to the Muslim world to work toward resolving the conflict, he said. ‘Our commitment to Israel's security is firm, unshakable. It won't be changed,’ he said. ‘But we have in the past been perceived as, in effect, being on one side, not being concerned about the other side as much as we should. We want comprehensive peace that will be good for the people of Israel and good for other Arab states.’” (h/t JMart)

THE PRESIDENT IS WAKING UP IN GUADALAJARA, MEXICO, as are …

— AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven: “Obama, Calderon at odds over drug war, trucking: President Barack Obama pressed for a new tone in the United States' relationship with Mexico but found no immediate progress Sunday on the divisions between him and Mexican President Felipe Calderon over the pace of U.S. drug-fighting aid and a ban on Mexican trucks north of the border. Obama kicked off his second trip to Mexico as president with a friendly 45-minute meeting with Calderon that touched on the vast trade relationship between their two countries, their cooperation on swine flu and the violent Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade on both sides of the border. Their talks came before the start of a lightning-quick three-way summit between the United States, Mexico and Canada.”

— Reuters’s Steve Holland: “Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada gather Monday to present a united front to try to limit the spread of the H1N1 swine flu, but there is less unity on simmering trade issues.”

— Bloomberg’s Nicholas Johnston and Jens Erik Gould: “President Barack Obama told his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon that he is committed to resolving a dispute over truck access to U.S. highways. Obama said he will also address safety concerns about the trucks raised by the U.S. Congress, an administration official said after the two leaders met in Guadalajara yesterday at a summit of North American leaders. Calderon told Obama that the dispute has hurt trade, raised consumer costs and reduced job creation, according to a statement from his press office.”

—… and AFP’s Stephen Collinson: “President Barack Obama joins leaders of Mexico and Canada Monday to plot counterattacks against swine flu, vicious drugs cartels and economic blight at his debut North American summit. Security forces swamped the western Mexican city of Guadalajara for the swift summit, where tactical adjustments rather than breakthroughs are expected against building threats to a diverse region of nearly 450 million people.”

2012 — POLITICO’s Kenneth P. Vogel, “Republicans banking on 2012 … [U]nderneath the radar, some of the Republican Party’s next best hopes are laying the groundwork for the bid to replace him — or at least secure their place in the GOP hierarchy. … In the first half of 2009, Mitt Romney’s political committee paid $188,000 to a small army of consultants, Newt Gingrich’s dropped $628,000 on charter flights, Mike Huckabee’s wrote staff paychecks totaling $131,000 and Sarah Palin’s spent $107,000 raising more money. … Each insist they’re using their efforts to help rebuild the party — and the conservative movement — after the GOP’s debilitating losses in the past two election cycles, not jockeying for 2012 pole position. But the manner in which such money is being spent suggests they are as much focused on accumulating the resources for a national infrastructure and keeping high their national profiles as party-building activities. … The political groups run by Romney, Gingrich, Huckabee and Palin, combined with those run by Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia and Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and Jim DeMint of South Carolina (also thought of as at least possible 2012 GOP prospects), brought in a total of $12.9 million in the first half of the year, a POLITICO analysis of IRS and FEC reports found. …

“Gingrich, who flirted with a 2008 presidential campaign, far outpaced the field, pulling in an impressive $8.1 million. That total is largely because his committee, American Solutions for Winning the Future, is a so-called 527 group, freeing it from federal election laws including the $5,000-per-year limit on contributions to which the other groups analyzed by POLITICO must adhere because they are leadership political action committees. … [Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC], which raised $1.9 million in the first half of the year, has spent the lion’s share of its cash on direct mail and other fundraising efforts, as well as on maintaining the nucleus of Romney’s 2008 campaign team, including über-campaign lawyer Ben Ginsberg, whose firm collected $45,000 in fees from Romney’s group, Fehrnstrom (who was paid $53,000), campaign manager Beth Myers ($60,000) and deputy campaign manager Peter Flaherty ($30,000). Likewise, Palin’s SarahPAC, which brought in $733,000 in the first six months of the year, spent $240,000 on consulting, fundraising and salaries, compared with $10,000 on campaign contributions. And Huckabee’s Huck PAC, which raised $305,000, paid more than $243,000 to staffers (including his daughter, Huck PAC Executive Director Sarah Huckabee), consultants and fundraising vendors.

“The PACs in POLITICO’s analysis that were most generous with their cash were those run by Republicans with less prominent 2012 profiles: Cantor, Thune and DeMint. Cantor’s Every Republican Is Crucial (ERIC) PAC contributed $393,000 of the $856,000 it raised this year. Thune’s Heartland Values PAC raised only $61,000, but it donated $27,000. And DeMint’s two PACs, MINT PAC and Senate Conservatives Fund, raised a combined $851,000, spending $616,000 on direct mailings and $65,000 on contributions and independent expenditures to benefit mostly very conservative Republican Senate candidates. Other Republicans are also using their political positions to keep their profiles raised. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has a relatively inactive 527 group, has been traveling the country meeting activists and raising money for his 2011 reelection campaign. It’s not clear how much he’s raised, since he won’t have to disclose his campaign finances for months. And Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota are expected to use their posts as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Republican Governors Association to travel the country raising cash for the party’s gubernatorial candidates — and their own profiles. Pawlenty, who will not seek reelection next year, has been test-driving a national message before activists around the country in recent weeks and is expected to form a federal leadership after he closes out his Minnesota campaign account.”

LIVING ONLINE — AP, “Air Force used Twitter to track NY flyover fallout,” by Richard Lardner: “As the Pentagon warns of the security risks posed by social networking sites, newly released government documents show the military also uses these Internet tools to monitor and react to coverage of high-profile events. The Air Force tracked the instant messaging service Twitter, video carrier YouTube and various blogs to assess the huge public backlash to the Air Force One flyover of the Statue of Liberty this spring, according to the documents. And while the attempts at damage control failed — ‘No positive spin is possible,’ one PowerPoint chart reads — the episode opens a window into the tactics for operating in a boundless digital news cycle. …

“The Marine Corps' computer network blocks users from accessing social media sites, which service officials say expose ‘information to adversaries’ and provide ‘an easy conduit for information leakage.’ The Marines recently made its ban official. And that prohibition might extend to other parts of the military pending a top-level review ordered in late July by Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn. In a widely distributed memo, Lynn said the so-called ‘Web 2.0’ sites are important tools but more study is needed to understand their threats and benefits. Air Force officials are already aware of the potential benefits. According to the Air Force One documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, a unit called the Combat Information Cell at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida monitored the public fallout from the April 27 flight and offered recommendations for dealing with the fast-breaking story. Formed two years ago, the cell is made up of as many as nine people who analyze piles of data culled from the Internet and other sources to determine whether the Air Force's message is being heard. …

“A Twitter search revealed a rate of one ‘tweet’ per minute about a pair of F-16s chasing a commercial airliner. … Another update on April 28 said the story was still ‘reverberating, surprisingly resilient.’ The tweet rate had grown to three per minute and the words ‘New York’ had been pushed into Twitter's high-frequency topic category. Videos of the event posted on YouTube had been viewed more than 260,000 times, it said. By April 30, the story had faded, the cell reported. The blogs were still very critical, but it was the White House, not the Air Force, that was taking the heat, the assessment for that day said.”

FOR MICHAEL GRUNWALD: “The issue of aliases is at the heart of a complaint stemming for the Army Corps of Engineers' performance in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina. On Tuesday, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) asked the Pentagon inspector general to examine allegations that Corps employees posed as ordinary citizens and posted comments on a New Orleans web site defending the organization from criticism following the disaster. Jon Donley, former editor of NOLA.com, said in a June 9 affidavit that there were as many as 20 registered users who developed a pattern of not only defending the Corps, but at times being ‘overtly abusive’ to any critics. He said he was able to trace their posts to a Corps Internet address. Ken Holder, a spokesman for Corps' New Orleans District, said it will cooperate with any investigation.”

URL SHORTENERS —TinyURL.com was the pioneer — let you plug in a long, ugly Web address and get back a shorter, elegant one that click through to the original. Playbook and PULSE (“Playbook for health care”) used tr.im, since it produced the shortest addresses. But tr.im made its final snip yesterday. Now the site reads: “tr.im is now in the process of discontinuing service, effective immediately. … tr.im links will continue to redirect, and will do so until at least December 31, 2009. … We regret that it came to this, but all of our efforts to avoid it failed. No business we approached wanted to purchase tr.im for even a minor amount. There is no way for us to monetize URL shortening — users won't pay for it — and we just can't justify further development since Twitter has all but anointed bit.ly the market winner. There is simply no point for us to continue operating tr.im and pay for its upkeep. We apologize for the disruption and inconvenience this may cause you.” So we’re switchin’ to bit.ly. We’d welcome your other tips or suggestions."

TRANSITIONS — Allison Jaslow is jumping from director of communications of Organizing for America in Virginia to communications director for the Democratic Party of Virginia, effective today. — Amie Parnes

EXCLUSIVE — THE CHAMBER’S JOHN REID JOINS MACKOWIAK INC. — From forthcoming release: “Matt Mackowiak, founder and President of Potomac Strategy Group, LLC (PSG), a political consulting and communications firm based in Washington, D.C., and Austin, TX, has named John Reid Vice President. Reid recently served as Editorial Director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Communications Director for U.S. Senator George Allen (R-VA) and as a News Anchor and Investigative Reporter in Richmond, VA and Waco, TX. … For a decade, Reid was a television News Anchor and investigative reporter at the ABC television station in Richmond, anchoring coverage of the DC sniper story, news surrounding the 9-11 attacks, and major elections. … Reid was Communications Director for U.S. Senator George Allen (R-VA). … A graduate of Baylor University, Reid was selected to serve as an intern and assistant to the press secretary in the office of former President Ronald Reagan in Los Angeles.”

UTAH SEER — The (Salt Lake City) Deseret News: “It is now confirmed: The best mind in Utah politics is Chris Bleak, chief of staff to House Speaker Dave Clark. Within nanoseconds of the announcement from the White House of the Huntsman nomination for ambassador (and possibly before [then-lt. gov, now Gov. Gary] Herbert even knew of the appointment), this astute veteran predicted [state Sen. Greg] Bell would be selected” as lieutenant governor.

MEDIAWATCH — WashPost Style front, “ Media Notes: At AOL, It's Politics Daily, Not Hourly,” by Howard Kurtz: “After a quarter-century as a military correspondent, David Wood knew the drill as he reported from Afghanistan last week, in helmet and flak jacket, on the intricacies of the U.S. war effort. But this time he was writing for a fledgling Web site, one that — unlike the thousands that specialize in commentary, snark or recycling other people's reporting — is willing to pony up to send an old-school journalist on a six-week foreign assignment. Wood was picked up by AOL's Politics Daily in May, shortly after the Baltimore Sun laid him off. … The three-month-old venture has become a re-employment program for middle-aged journalists who lack the flash and dash of young bloggers — and that is by design. Melinda Henneberger, the former Newsweek and New York Times reporter who runs the site, says her goal is ‘to preserve the values of the mainstream media.’ And in doing so, she is flouting several conventions about what works on the Web. First, she is slowing things down, rather than posting every traffic-generating tidbit. Second, she believes Web surfers have the patience to read pieces that run as long as 5,000 words. Third, she is challenging ‘the assumption that to get a lot of hits, you have to be hyperpartisan.’ … The veteran … include former USA Today political writer Jill Lawrence, former Washington Post columnist Donna Britt. Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet, a part-timer, writes a column on Michelle Obama. … Henneberger got approval to rent a Washington office but decided to save the money for future hiring. … So everyone works virtually from home, including two Denver editors hired from the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News. … Deputy Editor Carl Cannon, a veteran of six newspapers, … was hired after Reader's Digest eliminated the Washington bureau he headed. … The latest addition is liberal blogger David Corn of Mother Jones magazine …Walter Shapiro, a left-leaning former columnist for USA Today and Salon: ‘We don't deal in epithets, we don't deal in invective. We really adhere to things that have been proven true, as opposed to jumping on Sarah Palin rumors because some Web site in Alaska is running something.’”

DESSERT — AP, “‘The View’ star Hasselbeck has third child, a boy: Elisabeth Hasselbeck of ‘The View’ is the mother of a third child, a boy. Hasselbeck gave birth Sunday afternoon to her second son, Isaiah Timothy, at a New York City hospital. She's married to former NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck. The couple has two other children: Grace Elisabeth, who's 4, and Taylor Thomas, who's 20 months. Isaiah weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. The new dad reports: ‘Elisabeth and Isaiah are doing great.’”

**The AFSCME Highway to Health Care Reform RV will travel through key states mobilizing the public to contact their members of Congress to demand real reform -- reform that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all. The Highway to Health Care Reform tour is part of the union’s unprecedented $6 million Make America Happen campaign, which includes ads, canvassing, phone calls, online activities and the deployment of dozens of campaign field organizers to key states in support of President Obama’s efforts to win real health care reform this year. Check out the tour schedule at www.Highway2Healthcare.com. **

****** A message from UnitedHealth Group: What does it take to create a modern, high-performing, simpler health care system? Expanding access to care through proven state-based coverage and employer-sponsored insurance. Making health care more affordable with consumer-directed care and value-based payments. Supporting and modernizing Medicare to meet the complex health challenges of America’s seniors. And reinvesting in health to support research and innovation. Learn more about these ideas at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com ******

Authors:

About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.